Error: Failed to create key.

My girlfriend is getting this error prompt when she tries to start Steam. Is there anyone out there who knows how to resolve this issue?

Cheers /Ferth

[Sierra Oscar]

It is often a firewall issue, tell her to have a read over this FAQ.

We had this problem well over a year ago. I tried disabling the firewall, enabling every single port of the router and nothing worked. REad the FAQ inside out and upside down.

Posted questions to steam, and then even twitter in desperation but no help from anywhere. There is no one to talk to, no online chat, no real person to communicate with and as far as i can see no proper help.

So my son still has a game that we paid good money for that he received for Christmas 2008 that won't work. Yet if we didn't have to use steam, then the game would work just fine.

[Westridge]

Originally Posted by Sierra Oscar

It is often a firewall issue, tell her to have a read over this FAQ.

And what do you do when it isn't a firewall issue?
I had this problem when I installed three months ago. The Steam client updated itself yesterday and now I'm stuck again with the same problem and none of the usual fixes work. Hell, even uninstalling everything including registry entires and reinstalling still ends up with the same message. I'd been playing everything fine for the last three months until yesterday so don't tell me its a firewall issue.

The solution is following (it works for me) :

Click Start > Run...

Type "regedit" and press Enter.

Right-click on HKEY_CURRENT_USER and click Permissions

Under "Group or user names:" click Add...

Type in your Windows user account name and click "Check Names." If you entered the name properly, this should work and you should then be allowed to click OK.

Select your account in Group or user names and check "Allow" for Full Control and Read. Click OK.

Right-click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and click Permissions

Under "Group or user names:" click Add...

Type in your Windows user account name and click "Check Names." If you entered the name properly, this should work and you should then be allowed to click OK.

Select your account in Group or user names and check "Allow" for Full Control and Read. Click OK.

Once you have completed these steps, please exit the Registry Editor and reboot your computer, then re-test the issue.

tx to http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...d.php?t=976228

fixed it!

I had to manually assign my account as the owner of the HKCU/software/valve key. Then assign myself full-control of it. Then I had to do the same exact thing for the HKCU/software/valve/steam key.

Originally Posted by boise_piper

fixed it!

I had to manually assign my account as the owner of the HKCU/software/valve key. Then assign myself full-control of it. Then I had to do the same exact thing for the HKCU/software/valve/steam key.

I had the same problem, came to this forum, and just said forget it. A year later, I came back and thought, "OK, i'm going to figure this out".

The above works! To clear it up,

Step 1:
go to Start>Run> type regedit and hit enter

Step 2:
go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER
expand that and find the "software" folder, expand that and find the "Valve" folder.

Step 3:
on the "Valve" folder, right click and find permissions on the menu and click that. In the permissions box checkmark the "full control" box.

Step 4:
in the "Valve" folder if you expand that you will find the "Steam" folder. Right click on that and do the same as step 3.

That's it!

It was pretty easy. It'll take you like 10 seconds to fix it. I hope this clears up anyone elses problem.